{"id":2228,"date":"2008-09-05T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2008-09-05T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html"},"modified":"2008-09-05T12:00:31","modified_gmt":"2008-09-05T12:00:31","slug":"mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html","title":{"rendered":"MercyMe Fans: Listen to &#8216;Hymned Again&#8217; by Bart Millard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"millard_hymnedagain.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/import\/millard_hymnedagain.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"240\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span>The best part about &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bartmillard.org\/album.html\" target=\"_new\">Hymned Again<\/a>,&#8221; Bart Millard&#8217;s second solo album of updated (familiar and unfamiliar) hymns is his powerful and buttery voice.  As part of Christian band <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/features\/christianartists.html?pgIndex=13\" target=\"_blank\">MercyMe<\/a>, Millard&#8217;s voice is always what stands out, adding that extra punch to the catchy rhythms of the guitars, drums, and keyboard.<br \/>\nIn &#8220;Hymned Again,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/story\/187\/story_18726_1.html\" target=\"_blank\">Millard&#8217;s<\/a> voice blends perfectly with a new range of sounds that are influenced by brassy New Orleans jazz, smooth country and bluegrass, and some easy gospel and soul.  You&#8217;ll hear banjos, ukuleles, trumpets, and&#8211;what sounds like&#8211;a clarinet.  If you liked <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/story\/162\/story_16272_1.html\" target=\"_blank\">Jars of Clay&#8217;s<\/a> bluegrass venture, &#8220;Who We Are Instead,&#8221; you&#8217;ll like Millard&#8217;s take on mixing hymns with bluegrass and country.  Even if you didn&#8217;t, you&#8217;ll still like this album.<br \/>\nAs with Millard&#8217;s MercyMe songs, the ones on this album are guaranteed to set your arms waving and your body swaying through impromptu dance steps. The first track, &#8220;Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus&#8221; sets the tone for almost all the songs that follow&#8211;full of exploding energy and strong rhythms.  There will be times when some sounds seem a little too familiar, influenced by other bands perhaps, but still every song has a clearly different style and they ease into each other in a coherent way.  &#8220;What a Day&#8221; and &#8220;Victory in Jesus&#8221; have a slight swing and 50s doo-wop feel, while &#8220;What a Friend We Have in Jesus&#8221; and &#8220;I Saw the Light&#8221; are clearly straight bluegrass.  &#8220;I Stand Amazed&#8221; has a classic worship and praise sound, which is appropriate since Millard sings it with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/christynockels\" target=\"_new\">Christy Nockels<\/a>, who is part of Passion.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nMy personal favorite is &#8220;Grace That Is Greater,&#8221; the last song on the album.  With its soft and melodic ukulele strumming, the song will evoke comparisons to Jack Johnson and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=R0xoMhCT-7A&amp;feature=related\" target=\"_blank\">Israel Kamakawiwo&#8217;ole&#8217;s version of &#8220;Somewhere Over the Rainbow.&#8221;  <\/a> Personally, I find Millard&#8217;s voice is best when it&#8217;s allowed to shine and stand out; it loses something when softened and mellowed in &#8220;Jesus Cares for Me,&#8221; which Millard sings with country artist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vincegill.com\/main\/index.php\" target=\"_new\">Vince Gill<\/a>.<br \/>\nStill, with 11 tracks on this really fun and listen-worthy album, disliking 1 isn&#8217;t such a bad thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The best part about &#8220;Hymned Again,&#8221; Bart Millard&#8217;s second solo album of updated (familiar and unfamiliar) hymns is his powerful and buttery voice. As part of Christian band MercyMe, Millard&#8217;s voice is always what stands out, adding that extra punch to the catchy rhythms of the guitars, drums, and keyboard. In &#8220;Hymned Again,&#8221; Millard&#8217;s voice&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-music"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MercyMe Fans: Listen to &#039;Hymned Again&#039; by Bart Millard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MercyMe Fans: Listen to &#039;Hymned Again&#039; by Bart Millard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The best part about &#8220;Hymned Again,&#8221; Bart Millard&#8217;s second solo album of updated (familiar and unfamiliar) hymns is his powerful and buttery voice. As part of Christian band MercyMe, Millard&#8217;s voice is always what stands out, adding that extra punch to the catchy rhythms of the guitars, drums, and keyboard. In &#8220;Hymned Again,&#8221; Millard&#8217;s voice&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-05T12:00:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/millard_hymnedagain.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"shuang\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MercyMe Fans: Listen to 'Hymned Again' by Bart Millard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MercyMe Fans: Listen to 'Hymned Again' by Bart Millard","og_description":"The best part about &#8220;Hymned Again,&#8221; Bart Millard&#8217;s second solo album of updated (familiar and unfamiliar) hymns is his powerful and buttery voice. As part of Christian band MercyMe, Millard&#8217;s voice is always what stands out, adding that extra punch to the catchy rhythms of the guitars, drums, and keyboard. In &#8220;Hymned Again,&#8221; Millard&#8217;s voice&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2008-09-05T12:00:31+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/millard_hymnedagain.jpg"}],"author":"shuang","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html","name":"MercyMe Fans: Listen to 'Hymned Again' by Bart Millard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/millard_hymnedagain.jpg","datePublished":"2008-09-05T12:00:31+00:00","dateModified":"2008-09-05T12:00:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/ef1c54850b696e62e323df10adce8ba5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/millard_hymnedagain.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/millard_hymnedagain.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/mercyme-fans-listen-to-hymned.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MercyMe Fans: Listen to &#8216;Hymned Again&#8217; by Bart Millard"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/ef1c54850b696e62e323df10adce8ba5","name":"shuang","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6b4\/6b48911dceeb247289f46ee427de69a5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6b4\/6b48911dceeb247289f46ee427de69a5x96.jpg","caption":"shuang"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/shuang"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}